New Avatars & Off to Europe

Wow! A big thank you to all of you Backers for your support this far! Needless to say, based on our prior experience, little did we expect Small World 2 to garner so much support so fast.

With over 2/3rd of our $ 150,000 goal reached within the first 24 hours of this campaign, the Android and Steam versions definitively look like they will happen now!

As a result of this, I'm flying off to Paris first thing tomorrow, to discuss possible stretch goals with the R&D team.

This means answers might be coming slower for the next couple of days, but for a good cause. :)

In the meantime, here are a few avatars to help us spread the word on Kickstarter and various social networks. To use any of these, simply right click on the image you like best, "Save As" somewhere on your computer, and set your Avatar on Kickstarter and elsewhere to spread the love for Small World 2. On Kickstarter, you can change your avatar by clicking on Me -> Edit Settings -> Picture.

@Jason +1 man. I just did some quick math. Can anybody confirm if I got it right? But I basically multiplied the number of backers per pledge level amount, and then added everything. It comes out to roughly USD60k.

I'm assuming then that the rest of the USD80k is coming from add-ons, probably from the DE. I hope that DoW acknowledges this if this is true, and makes stretch goals that are appropriate to the desire of its backers. Meaning more stuff for the DE. :D

After all, it seems like it's the desire for the DE that is funding this project. :D

Superbacker

@Chrisoc13 I am with Jesse. I made my own copies because of the black market pricing on expansions. they aren't great quality, but will do the trick if I ever get to use them. I would have loved the opportunity to pledge more for the Necromancer and Leader's expansions. Regardless, just Smallworld2 is exciting, and maybe this KS will show DoW how much people really want to be able to play this series, SWU, the expansions to these and designing of races. Stretch goals...bring em on!

@Robert I see your point! But if their fist kickstarter is any kind of indication they didn't seem to understand at that point how it works. Just hoping for some good stretch goals at this point! Hopefully if they want pointers they look around at some of the other KS projects with good stretch goals.

@ Chrisoc13 I have no problems with him getting on a plane and talking to his colleagues in Paris, but KS has been around for a while so its hard to imagine that they haven't seen how they are generally done and technically this is their second KS :) You don't go into a pitch meeting and say after an hour "hold on a for a bit, I have to pop out to go talk to my colleagues about additional things we could possible do".

(Though Brabben made this mistake with Elite, basically starting it without any real thought or effort and they barely scraped by compared to say Torment, Project Eternity, Wasteland 2, Chris Roberts KS with their near daily updates, regular stretch goals and what not)

@Jesse I actually have a copy and think it is a very weak expansion, as is necromancer island. I never use either of them so I completely agree with you on them. But I still think it would be nice to have the option to use them on the digital version. And I know a lot of people want the leaders still it's always nice to have a complete set so I understand their desire.

Superbacker

And frankly, since we're already participating in a limited run situation, and some of us are shelling out over $400 for the privilege, many of us (myself included) feel that it would be right and reasonable to get a hold of a $10 limited expansion.

Superbacker

@Jesse, We want it because we can't get it. Anywhere. The world of board gaming is thick with "limited edition" stuff that you can only get if you're "In the know", or at the right place at the right time. Those of us who are less than lucky, or aware, we lose out and have to pay outrageous prices to the scalpers who bought up a bunch at just the right time so they can re-sell for 2x, 5x, or even 100x the original price. Necromancer's Island and Leaders are each going for over $50 right now.

Superbacker

@ Chrisoc13 - have you ever played with Leaders? You might really like it, but I'm kind of surprised to see so many people saying they want the physical copy of this expansion because personally it was my least favorite expansion. By a long shot. I don't think it adds anything to the game and I never play with my set. But maybe adding it to the App version would turn out to be more fun! :-)

@Robert The trip was probably already planned for something else and while he is there they will discuss stretch goals. This is their first real kickstarter, perhaps they are not sure how these work out?

I think it's a great thing that Eric is flying to Paris to talk over bigger plans of the project!! Stretch goals, here we come! Anyone have some realistic ideas for them? I'm thinking that adding the Tales and Legends cards to the app would be my top pick!!

Him flying to Paris to talk face to face is a good thing. Having the big boss in office has a much greater effect on the people working there then him calling in. People who want to to impress him in hopes of a raise or promotions will work better and people who are afraid of getting fired will work harder.

Who cares how he is getting to Paris. Or why he is going. Just because we back a kickstarter doesn't mean we get to tell them how to run their business. They obviously know what they are doing they make fantastic games. Some of my favorites. I'm just glad they are looking at stretch goals! That is very exciting.

To anyone reading this who doesn't think the android market is as profitable as the iOS market or to people who complained about the first try being canceled - we are looking at 900 more backers on day two than the first run at the halfway point.
Hopefully more companies will take the hint and go for the android approach! ;)

I am with Alyindar, I doubt he is dipping into the kickstarter coffer to find a first class trip across the globe. And even if he was traveling from the US, face to face meetings when you are basically looking down the road at getting the necessary funding are important. Making a phone call sometimes just doesn't cut it.

Superbacker

Please use the opportunity to further explore the possibility of shipping the DE to European backers from Europe. There are a lot of people waiting to up their pledges and include the DE, provided you guys eliminate th import duties risk.